Is Economy about trading or about transferring?

There is no race to the bottom. You tell me why the guy who built the 30 foot stage can't retrain into a new and more lucrative career? People do it all the time. Why should he be locked into a lifetime of platation like defined benefits when his potential is so much more?

Creative Destruction is both necessary and proper.

 

Kinda at a loss how your point connects to his...

But, I'm gonna try to respond to what I think is your point (and i'm sorry if it's not... You seem to be thinking faster than you type)

Your suggestion makes sense in the times of the American Industrial Revolution. A grand champion of what you conceive is a gentleman by the name of Cornelius Vanderbilt. He started out in the shipping industry when Manufacturing in the US was really starting to fly. After building a successful shipping empire, he realized that times were changing and that Railroads were the future. so he switches gears and starts building railroads until he controls most of the railroads on the eastern seaboard. This is a grand notion of capitalism that could easily fly as a conservative poster boy. However, in our age, we live in an economic environment that promotes a risk divergent system in our service based economy. We make money on pushing the wealth around, but generate little new wealth. The theoretical guy that you speak of would be financially insightful to put his faith into this service system, because as our economy has become based around it, it is where he most likely will make money as an individual. However, as a nation, we lose out as countries like China, who are manufacturing everything (read producing new wealth) are edging out profits by providing consumer goods to service based economies. Now eventually, as their economy inflates, their economy will balance out and no longer be as attractive for manufacturers compared to other places, but the balance of power in the world may alter in the process. If we want to keep america strong, we need to reinvest ourselves in generating new wealth... that's Mining right, not just national, but working out international mining rights with developing countries, Manufacturing -- i'm sorry, but Low skill manufacturing is never coming back to this country, we need to focus on Educating a generation of High skill manufacturers... creating a world of innovation that can't be "made in china"

We need a new imperial age in america. Stop whining about big gov or big business. get them working together to project how great america is to the rest of the world.

 

Whilst we know that capitalism goes hand in hand with underpayment, we do know that- as productivity increases- we can expect higher wages. So ask yourself: what is the effect of tariffs? Other than a deadweight loss and significant damage to the consumer surplus, there is also skewed production towards more labour intensive, low productivity 'goods'. End result? In the long term expect tariffs to negatively impact on the wage distribution.

The economic reality of trade is just not consistent with the folly of economic nationalism

 

The guy that builds the 30 foot stage can go into venture capital and become billionaire for all I care.

This does nothing to address the fact we can't have a nation of 311,000,000 billionaires.

It is a question of what the most efficient economy is, and math and history clearly show you need for a thriving middle class of vast numbers to create actual growth, as it is this increase in consumption that only a middle class produces that is required for the most efficient economy.

 

The only route to Middle Class is through education. Everyone left of the Bell Curve gets to work at McDonald's. Sorry that is unavoidable.

 

Can't figure out why all those coal miners died in Harlen County in gun fights, if increased production = increased wages.

Did I forget to mention this was in America, a democracy, and not an authoritarian state?

 

That is not true, as your ilk is so fond of pointing out, factory work is unskilled labor, that was only high paying because of unions.

 

Tariffs are skewed towards goods that come into the country, which for the most part are low skilled, labor intensive products from places like China. This gives the US manufacturing industry a chance to salvage itself.

 

Why is that a desirable outcome? More importantly, why do so many people keep peddling the myth that manufacturing output in the US is down?

It's a fact that we produce more now than we ever have, those jobs were lost to technology and automation, not Chinese workers. Increasing the price of consumer goods would do nothing other than harm your average American.

 

You think a highly advanced economy should be producing low skilled, labour intensive product? That wouldn't be consistent with basic concepts such as opportunity costs